Germanna board welcomes two new members

Germanna President David A. Sam welcomed two new board members last week during the community college’s monthly meeting at the Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.

John H. Jenkins of J&J Real Estate will represent the Culpeper District, replacing Rillhurst resident Jerry Raines, who chaired the board for the past two years.

Cathy Washington replaced Lyle Ray Smith, who represented the Stafford District.

During one of their first official tasks, Jenkins and Washington joined the entire board in unanimously voting to approve transferring $800,000 from a reserve fund toward building a third structure on Germanna’s Fredericksburg campus.

The approval is contingent upon various county appropriations and the Germanna Foundation’s willingness to fund the project. The 50,000-square-foot building will serve as an academic services facility and what community college officials are calling phase three of a multi-building campus.

The state-of-the-art facility will house science and laboratory classes as well as a high-tech library and faculty offices.

According to Rick Brehm, GCC’s vice president for administrative services, the state has appropriated $25.7 million toward the $28.4 million project.

“They require us to raise $2.6 million,” Brehm told the board Thursday. “Our piece of that goes to both design and construction.”

So far, Germanna has raised $120,000 with the help of its Educational Foundation, Brehm said.

As one of his final acts on the board, Raines said Germanna’s biggest challenge is grappling with “increasing enrollment with declining funding from the state.”

GCC’s headcount — which includes the Culpeper, Locust Grove and Fredericksburg locations — is approaching 14,000.

The board’s biggest accomplishment during his tenure, Raines said, was selecting David A. Sam to succeed Frank Turnage as president. Turnage served as head administrator for 20 years.

“Boards don’t have that opportunity too often,” Raines said. “That was a huge transition, replacing someone who had been at the college as long as Dr. Turnage. But we found the right man.”

Germanna employees learned shortly after Gov. Tim Kaine’s recent budget cuts earlier this month that they will be furloughed one day to help balance the state’s budget.

“I am confident in our faculty and staff,” Sam said. “I have never been prouder of them than now, watching how hard they work with 25 percent more students than three years ago and fewer staff. It will be hard, but we will continue to do our best to serve our students and communities and fulfill our mission.”

Germanna has 543 full- and part-time employees.

Following Thursday’s meeting, Sam said his staff is working on setting aside one day during spring break to close the college to avoid disrupting students’ schedules.

Earlier this month, Gov. Kaine announced a 13 percent cut in state funding for two-year community colleges and a 15 percent reduction in funds for four-year colleges and universities.

The cutbacks are part of the commonwealth $1.35 billion revenue shortfall for fiscal year 2010. However, the cuts offset this school year, thanks to $620,501 in federal stimulus funds, resulting in only a 7 percent annual shortfall.